The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for evaluating computer resources.
To efficiently manage and troubleshoot computer resources such as software applications on a network, an administrator needs information about the status of the computer resources and communication paths on the network. To effectively monitor the resources and the network, the administrator needs information regarding the availability and performance of networked applications and the ability of the network to provide access to the networked applications. Such detailed information is important for management of the computer resources and the network so that the configuration of the resources or the network can be modified or supplemented as needed. Preferably, these modifications or supplements are put in place before major problems occur.
Currently, the information that is available about a software application running on a server may be derived from information that is accessible to the server or the application, and the information that is available about a network may be derived from information gathered by a network analyzing product such as a network sniffer, which is a device that is inserted into a segment of the network to monitor the packets that are traveling along the communication line into which the sniffer has been inserted.
The increasing popularity and complexity of Web site and networked database applications that are dependent on the Internet, or on a network using Internet protocols, has further complicated the administrative task, including the task of managing Web site database content and maintaining Web site effectiveness. Company Webmasters and business managers are routinely faced with a wide array of burdensome issues such as the detection, identification, and repair of broken Web sites and links, the monitoring and organization of large volumes of diverse, continuously-changing Web site and networked database content, and the detection and management of Web site problems and congested links. These issues are particularly significant for companies that rely on their Web sites to provide mission-critical information and services to customers and business partners.
A method and apparatus are provided for evaluating computer resources. To closely simulate the experience of an end user, a software agent executes in a location where the end user would be situated and attempts to exercise a computer resource such as a networked application or a network resource in a simulated transaction in exactly or nearly exactly the same way that the computer resource would be exercised by the end user in a non-simulated transaction. The results of the simulated transaction and of other simulated transactions by other software agents are communicated to a central software system for recordation and analysis.
The method and apparatus may be used with the World-Wide Web or the Internet or with a local area network (xe2x80x9cLANxe2x80x9d) or a wide area network (xe2x80x9cWANxe2x80x9d) that extends over a large enterprise and includes a number of LANs connected together in an xe2x80x9cintranet.xe2x80x9d
Different aspects of the invention allow one or more of the following. An end-to-end evaluation can be performed of the ability of an overall system, that includes an application running on a server and a network providing access to the application, to serve an end-user effectively. A pro-active detection system can be provided that detects a problem in the overall system before the problem affects, or is detected by, an end-user. Simulated transactions that are highly representative of non-simulated transactions can be executed using the same computer resources that are used by the non-simulated transactions. Existing computer and network hardware already installed in a network can be used highly effectively to evaluate computer resources on the network. Evaluations of computer resources on a network can be performed at effectively any time with little or no disruption to the normal operation of the computer resources or the network.